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Saturday, April 19, 2014

Project Anita

I was invited to participate in a group project to honor one of our own. Anita from Sweet Hope Cookies started making cookies to raise awareness and funds for ALS. Her generosity and love inspires all she interacts with to be better, love better, and live better. Today we honor Anita as she remembers her brother Randy, with stories of the people in our lives that inspire us the most. Please join with us by sharing this photo and YOUR story. Follow the love with #CelebrateLife

Anita inspires me in so many ways. I've been lucky enough to have met her in person twice. It's a lot like meeting a celebrity and yet she makes you feel completely comfortable and she's just as nice and super funny as she is on her blog. Her devotion to the fight against ALS is nothing less than inspiring and she does it all in loving memory of her brother, Randy. I have no doubt that Randy is watching over her and incredibly proud of his sister's efforts in the fight against ALS.

For this project, we were asked to choose someone that is our hero, who inspired us, who we are proud of, who we love. There are so many people that fall into that category for me, but the obvious choice was my dad. My dad was always my biggest hero. He taught me that I could do anything if I dedicated hard work to make it happen. Our problem solving skills were the same. The way our brains figured out things was the same. Character, honesty and work ethic were some of the most important qualities to him. We lost my dad to Cancer 6 years and 7 days ago.

Did I ever tell you that my dad was a race car driver? He was also an Engineer and a Marketing Manager, but racing cars was his passion. So I made him race car cookies. More about that in a bit.

This was an amazing group project started by Georganne of LilaLoa. She has an 11 day old newborn baby, but somehow found the time to head this entire project with all these cookie artists. She's another one that inspires!

So I made lots of race car cookies that I knew my dad would get a smile from.

My dad's favorite color was yellow.

and then I bought Aidan a race car outfit. Did you know Aidan's middle name is Edward, named after my dad? My dad sure would have thought that was pretty special. I wish he could have met him and Abigail.

When my dad was racing cars, I used to be part of his crew. One of the jobs was to work the turns and alert the race car drivers if there was a hazard. One of the times we were at Sears Point Raceway. I was holding the stop watch and I was told that my dad would be coming around the corner at X time. He didn't come. Immediately my heart started pounding out of my chest. Another few seconds went by and tears were streaming down my face. I knew something was very wrong. Then we got alerted to put out the hazard flag for the drivers. I swung the hazard flag and alerted the drivers, but I knew it was my dad. I was a panicking mess. Even now all these years later, I have tears streaming just remembering that awful day and how that felt. My dad had crashed in turn 10. If you know anything about Sears Point Raceway, there have been lives lost in turn 10. The workers got the race track closed down. We all waited for more information. They brought me to an area to wait for news on my dad. After what felt like an eternity, I saw my dad walking slowly toward me from very far away. I ran to him and hugged him and thanked God he was alive. A little bit later someone told me that they pulled my dad out of the car and this is the only thing my dad said "Make SURE that Cristin sees ME, before she sees the car". Shortly after my dad had walked that long way to me, the car was pulled up. It would have been devastating to see the car and not know if he had survived. The ENTIRE left side of the car was now on the right side of the car. Seeing that car is etched into my memory forever. My dad wasn't concerned about himself or his injuries or his beloved race car. He was worried about his daughter seeing it and knowing what I would have thought. That's the kind of man my dad was. And that was the last race I ever went to. I'm not strong enough for that and he understood.

For the last 7 years, my family and I have joined the fight against Cancer. Together we have raised over $26,000 toward Cancer research in memory of my dad.

Abigail wanted to get in the race car blog too :-)

Thank you Anita for being a true inspiration and sharing your love. The stories of your Random Acts of Kindness sitting in the coffee shop seeing everyone's faces as they get up in line and realize that someone has already pre-paid for their coffees and the gifts you give and the love you share, inspire all of us to be better and do better.

Hi Cristin, what a lovely post and story about your Dad! I remember seeing your posts about riding your bike to the bench where he used to meet you. I know you loved and now miss him so much. I had no idea he was a race car driver and that your family has raised so much for cancer research! How scary that must have been that last day you went to the track! Thanks so much for sharing, You are so lucky to have had him in your life, he sounds like a wonderful Dad. Your cookies are fabulous too.Christine from Chris Creative Confections :)

I was teary reading this. As you know I recently lost my Dad. I wanted to say that it is kind of you to share such intimate details of your life. How cool to be able to be on the track and a part of the crew! Thank you for sharing such wonderful and difficult memories. I hope to be able to look back as you do and share my own stories in time. :)